Ahhh, welcome to October! It’s finally time! I’ve been waiting for this for over a month. It’s time. IT’S TIME. It’s time for Halloween!

It’s my favorite time of year. And this year, I’ve been watching a lot of creepy stuff on TV and Netflix. I love creepy stuff. I AM creepy, really, so I watch creepy stuff all year ’round. And I’ve also been watching my old favorites: Beetlejuice, Interview with the Vampire, Frankenstein, etc. I’m such a horror movie fan anyway… but this time of year it’s even better.

Get your minds out of the gutter, y’all. I put them in a vampire’s blood cocktail.

I mean, when your hot cocoa starts giving you the finger, you know it’s Halloween.

This is just white hot cocoa dyed red. Topped with whipped cream and some candy fingers. It’s so incredibly easy- but it will also dye your fingers and clothes and face so make sure you save it for a Halloween party. It’s only appropriate to have red teeth, lips and fingers when you’re dressed up as a vampire or some strange sexy witch/vampire combo.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we’ve been getting some insanely large tomatoes this year from our garden. Insane. I already used a bunch to make that hot tomato and peach jam, I gave some massive 1 1/2 lb. ones away and then I found myself with another 8 lbs. of them. And in this heat we’ve been having, you can’t just be lax and let them sit around for a while, you have to use them or they’ll get mushy and it’ll be a waste.

Last year I showed you all how to make my favorite simple tomato sauce. Well, this one isn’t quite as simple, and takes a lot longer to make. But the benefits are that it’ll keep all winter long and you can store it in your cabinets until you’re ready to use it.

I have always wanted to do this, and either didn’t have enough tomatoes at once to make it worthwhile or used up all my tomatoes making salsa (I love salsa, guys. I really do). So this year when Jay mentioned that it was the one thing he really wanted to do, I agreed.

I found this recipe over at An Oregon Cottage. It’s from the old Ball Blue Book’s seasoned tomato sauce, and while it’s not included in current prints, it’s still safe and fine to be used.

What I did- since I didn’t have 23 lbs. of tomatoes- is I altered the measurements for my tomatoes. You can do the same. Just be sure to use the measurements exactly as given and divide them by what your amounts are, and not just use whatever measurements you want if you’re going to actually process them for shelf-stability.

For the peaches, I made a hot tomato peach jam and a peach cobbler. The nectarines… well for them I knew I wanted to do something a little different. Something more unique, or internationally-inspired. So I remembered I had seen something in Saveur about murabba, which is a type of preserve from South Asia:

Urdu: مربا‎, Uzbek: ‘murabbo’) refers to sweet fruit preserve which is popular in many regions of Caucasus, Central and South Asia. It is traditionally prepared with fruits, sugar, and spices.

I wanted to do something like that, but not exact. So I made a nectarine preserve (or jam) with rosewater and cardamom. I opened my cardamom pods and used the seeds inside. You could also just tie some pods in a cheesecloth and cook it in the pot with the jam, then remove it.

My rosewater is by Nielsen-Massey. You can buy it from a lot of places, and most ethnic supermarkets or stores will have it. I can’t say you’ll use it often, but its one of those things I like having in my arsenal. Even if only for moments like this.

SMALL BATCH ROSEWATER CARDAMOM NECTARINE JAM

Makes 2 -3 half pint (8 oz.) jars

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped nectarines (NOT peeled!)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

the inner seeds of 4 cardamom pods

1 – 2 teaspoons rosewater

Directions:

Prepare your jars. Keep them warm. Get your lids and bands at the ready.

Cook nectarines, sugar, lemon juice and cardamom seeds at a very mild boil for 30-minutes. I zapped mine with an immersion blender for a few seconds just to break up the larger pieces. I did leave some smallish chunks.

Add in the rosewater (you may not want more than 1-2 teaspoons, unless you really love it). Stir and cook for 5 more minutes.

Skim foam off surface, ladle into sterilized jars. Place lids and bands to fingertip tight. Process in boiling water bath for 10-mins.

Remove from water and let sit for 12-24 hours. Any unsealed jars must be refrigerated and used immediately.

How’s your summer going, everyone!? I hope you’re all eating and drinking and growing (veggies- not your waistline) and swimming and beaching your way through the season. I haven’t had much time to bake, plus it’s been hot. But after having some peaches left after my first foray into the 2016 peach/nectarine portion of my Canbassadorship, I really needed to bake up somethin’ a lil bit traditional. But yet not traditional. ‘Cause you know how I am.

What ELSE do you do when you get 26 lbs. of fresh Northwest grown peaches and nectarines from Yakima, Washington?

Well, first you make peach jam and stuff. Then you make peach cobbler. ‘Cause duh.

Are these not the hugest, most gorgeous peaches EVER? OMGYASSSSS.

Okay, anyway.

Peach cobbler. It’s like a summer staple.

I’m all about shortcuts, or making things easier for myself. If I can make a delicious three layer cake from scratch and have it not take two hours, then that’s the path I’ll take. It’s not that I don’t enjoy baking. I love it. But I have a life to live, and I’d rather get to the eating part, if you catch my drift.

This one takes no time at all. The worst part is peeling the peaches. And peel them you must. I mean, MUST. You don’t want fuzz in your cobbler. I know it looks and feels so cute on the actual peach… but it doesn’t feel so good in your mouth while eating a nice hot cobbler with cold whipped cream.

I’ve been harvesting a lot of tomatoes from the garden lately. I know, I haven’t done my annual garden post. I haven’t had the time (yet). But just know that everything is growing like crazy. I’ve picked about 12 tomatoes and so far other than the small Yellow Taxi tomatoes, each one has been around one pound- some have been almost 2 pounds. EACH. Big Beef, Brandywine and Better Boy have been doing just fine & providing us with a lot of ‘maters. And the peppers, too. I’ve got loads of Ancho Poblano’s if anyone wants. Just kidding. They’re mine.

So I decided, when I got my second shipment of the 2016 Canbassador program, to make something different.

So, anyway, the garden. And those big, beautiful tomatoes. I was originally going to just make a tomato jam and a peach jam separately this summer. But why do that when I could combine them both and make one amazingly interesting jam? Add to it the fact that our pepper plants are cranking out some crazy amounts of Red Rocket chilies… and that’s where I got this inspiration from. Thanks to Love and Olive Oil and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for the technical & recipe help.

I’ve always loved turquoise. I remember as a little girl going in my mom’s jewelry box and playing around with her old silver rings and earrings. A couple of them being her turquoise from the 60’s and 70’s. I’ve always had love for that stone. I felt like it was so earthy- it seemed like it was more raw and true to nature than a lot of other stones. As I got older, I stopped wearing it in favor of other gemstones.

But I had never heard of Larimar until recently.

Larimar is a form of mineral that is only found in the Dominican Republic. It’s also known as also called “Stefilia’s Stone.” It is a rare blue variety of the silicate mineral pectolite found only in the Caribbean. Its coloration varies from white, light-blue, green-blue to deep blue.

This is, for me, the *new* turquoise.

It’s not your typical color or texture. Its not just the same old thing. It looks so unique. It’s opaque like turquoise but yet translucent-ish.

I find it to be so gorgeous, don’t you?

I happened to get this ring from Larimar Bliss as a gift, and it arrived right before my birthday. I wore it to dinner that night and I got so many compliments on it. The organic shape is perfect for the stones’ quality and the striations and colors.

It’s the perfect birthday gift for a summer baby like me. It reminds me of the summer sky, the beach, and the ocean, which is where it comes from.

If you’re into the metaphysical;

“In metaphysical work, the larimar stone reflects the symbolic meanings of its elemental origins. Related to the sea, it radiates with deep feelings of peace and tranquility, having the power to quell emotions. Water is the element of deep emotions, and the beauty of the Caribbean ocean represents a calm, transcendent place. Few human hearts are not opened to peace and serenity in the face of radiant blue waters.”

Also, Larimar is said to enlighten and heal in a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual way. It stimulates the heart, throat, third eye and crown chakras facilitating inner wisdom and outer manifestation. It represents peace and clarity, radiating healing and love energy.

In this picture and the others where I’m wearing it, it’s not as easy to see the bright sky blue color. It looks more like turquoise. But the above photos are more true to color.

It reminds me of playing in my mom’s jewelry box again. Except this time it’s mine. Alllllllll miiiiiine.

July 4th was America’s 240th birthday, and July 5th was my mother’s (definitely not 240th) birthday. So every year I usually ask her what she’d like me to bake for her and I do the baking on the 4th. This way, she gets to squeak out two days worth of celebrations.

This year she gave me quite a few suggestions, but I decided to make something I haven’t made in a while: ricotta cake.

While this cake looks incredibly complicated, fancy and difficult to make… it is not. The hardest part is pitting the cherries and cutting the fruit. For real. It’s an absolute breeze that requires no mixer (none at all) and nothing more than a few bowls, a whisk and a wooden spoon. It’s a good old fashioned easy cake.